


Things You Say When No One's Listening

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 10 OT+ Fics [7]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Multi, OT5, Polyamory, future OT6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22915834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "After being alone for 300 years, and spending most of it talking to thin air, jack forgets that people can hear him now, resulting in some rather…interesting situations. (do as you please!)"Jack has a lot of feelings. Jack expresses these feelings when he’s around the other Guardians. Jack is very poly and has no idea if the Guardians even do relationships. The Guardians used to be all together and they all like Jack now, so it’s probably good that he’s expressing a lot of feelings that they’ll have to talk about with each other.
Relationships: E. Aster Bunnymund/Jack Frost/Nicholas St. North/Sanderson Mansnoozie/Toothiana
Series: My Top 10 OT+ Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1644124
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: RotG Polyamory Fics





	Things You Say When No One's Listening

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 7/8/2015.

“That’s so cool how you make prototypes out of ice,” Jack says quietly. North smiles and is about to explain in great detail the magic that goes into making this particular ice—no one else wants to listen anymore, and Jack might even find it useful in relation to his own powers—when Jack continues. “Like, it’s amazing the kind of detail you can get, using those little, delicate tools with your huge hands.” He laughs a little bashfully. “I wonder if you’re that careful using your hands on another person, if you’d be that careful with me—ah, but I don’t even know if that’s a kind of thing Guardians even do, maybe I’m an odd one out because I’m stuck in a teenage body, and you probably don’t think of me that way, but oh man, I’m three hundred years old and I don’t need a father figure and that’s definitely not how I’m thinking of you—”  
  
It takes a lot to make North blush, but he figures he’d better cut Jack off before he reaches that point. But he’s been speaking so softly, maybe he doesn’t realize North can hear him. North decides to give him that chance. He clears his throat and looks over at Jack. “I am sorry, I was very focused on shaping the wings of this piece. Were you saying something?”  
  
“What?” Jack squeaks, genuinely surprised. “No—no—I don’t think so.” He seems to have gone even paler than usual.  
  
“Ah, all right,” North says with a relaxed smile. “I just wanted to make sure I did not miss anything important.” So Jack hadn’t realized he was speaking aloud. That, and the content of what he was saying, is something North would have to make a point of speaking about to the other Guardians.  
  


* * *

  
  
Bunny has always known that his ears were going to cause trouble sooner or later. Other people can say they understand how good his hearing is, but if they’re human-shaped, they _always_ forget.  
  
But he hadn’t expected the trouble they caused to be what it was, and certainly not to come from Jack’s direction. But it had.  
  
“I feel like I ought to apologize for more than just the kangaroo crack,” Jack says. He’s helping Bunny go over the Warren again, checking for any lingering traces of nightmares. They’re at far more than conversational distance, by human standards. “Does volunteering to help do this with you count? I wish it was easier to talk to you, but then again maybe that wouldn’t be so great. I’d probably end up saying something I regretted.”  
  
 _He’s forgotten about the ears_ , Bunny thinks. But before he can think of a reason to run over and interrupt, Jack goes on. “I’d probably end up saying something cornball about winter eventually needing spring’s warmth, and that’d be way too sincere. I don’t even know if that’d be a good idea. How close can we get without it being a disaster? Can we touch? I hope so, but what am I even talking about? You’ve barely started to like me as a fellow Guardian, right, and I’m wanting to tell you I want to bury my face in your fur and see if certain metaphors about rabbits are true? I mean, your face would be hilarious, but the rejection wouldn’t be.”  
  
 _Gob-smacked acceptance might be, though._ “Jack!” Bunny calls. “Do you hear that? It sounded like voices in the Warren!”  
  
Jack stops talking and looks at him in alarm. “Uh—I didn’t hear anything,” he says. “But we—we should definitely check it out!”  
  
Bunny bounds after him. _Well, this is going to be a fun topic to bring up at the next Guardian meeting._  
  


* * *

  
  
Normally, Tooth doesn’t pay attention to everything that her fairies are currently experiencing. It’s impossible to carry on a conversation with other individual beings that way, and usually her fairies are fine on their own. But when Jack visits her girls—well, even if it distracts her a little from her main duties, she can’t help but give herself the treat of looking through their eyes. It was how she had gotten to know Jack in the first place, anyway.  
  
Most of the time, she just looks, and what her fairies hear remains in the background of her mind. But when she notices the word “secret”, her whole attention is immediately drawn into the five or seven little fairies around Jack.  
  
“I wonder if you all can keep a secret,” he says musingly, as they sort of take turns and sort of fight about flying up to get their heads petted. “I mean, I probably shouldn’t say anything. You’re probably used to telling Tooth everything, right? And if I was going to tell you, trusting that it would get back to Tooth, I’d be a coward, and that’s definitely unattractive.” The little fairies appear to utterly ignore what he’s saying, in favor of playing with his hair and trying to touch his teeth. And Jack doesn’t act like he expects them to react at all.  
  
 _Wait_ , Tooth thinks. _Does he know he’s speaking out loud?_  
  
She considers nudging a fairy to make it clear to him—that would be the polite thing to do—but she also rather wants to know what Jack wants to tell her somehow, and why he particularly doesn’t want to be unattractive in the telling.  
  
“I mean, maybe I could be encouraged by how much she likes my teeth, but then again, maybe that’s just the teeth. Maybe she’d just think I was weird if I told her how brave and beautiful I think she is. She’d definitely think I was weird if I told her that I can’t forget any more that even in her feathers she’s actually naked. If I’ve got the wrong idea here, I’d never even get a hug after that. But even if…well, I wonder if she’d be patient in teaching me how to touch her? I mean I don’t have much of a clue in general but I’ve never even been around someone like her before—hey, what are you nodding about?”  
  
Jack asks his last question in a louder voice than before, and Tooth draws back from those fairies all at once. That fairy had been nodding because Tooth was thinking that she was really _quite_ amenable to teaching Jack how to touch her, but communicating through one of her fairies was not the way to let him know that, especially since he admitted he wasn’t ready to tell her anything about his feelings in the first place.  
  
She hopes the others will be able to give her some good advice on how to hurry this along, though.  
  


* * *

  
  
Sandy smiles proudly at Jack as he yawns and lies back on the cloud he’s made larger to accommodate them both. It’s been more difficult to help Jack fall asleep now that he’s been gaining believers and power, but Sandy can still manage it, and in his opinion Jack still needs it.  
  
Jack smiles a little and blinks slowly, clearly about to drift off. Sandy pulls a handful of sand from the cloud and begins to form a dream for him, something good and peaceful so he’ll have plenty of energy to wreak an absolute chaos of joy when he eventually wakes up. Thankfully he knows Jack much better than he used to, so he can make the dream more detailed and stable, even if that makes the work of shaping it more complex to begin with.  
  
When Jack laughs softly it doesn’t draw his attention right away, because Jack laughing is normal and good, and forming the dream is getting a little tricky. It keeps developing folds that aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but that turn it into something he thinks would be rather rude to give Jack, especially when Sandy’s obviously crafted it personally. And usually these kinds of changes only come from the dreamer’s mind, but this time Sandy’s almost sure they come from his, and that just shouldn’t happen, he’s had too much practice—  
  
“I can’t believe how cute you are,” Jack murmurs. Sandy lifts his head. Has Jack fallen asleep already? Has some sand gotten to him already, giving him a random dream? It barely takes a thought for Sandy to discover that isn’t the case. He pauses in his work so he can watch Jack out of the corner of his eye.  
  
“So cute,” Jack says again. “Sticking your tongue out while you work. Your little feet. Your little hands. I definitely shouldn’t have refused when you offered to cuddle with me that one time, because you’ve been really polite and never offered again. I would’ve wanted you to be the little spoon, though, and I was afraid I’d get hard. Not sure how you’d react to that. I could have tried to act like it was just because of the body I happen to have but that would have been a lie and I think you pay more attention to tone and expression than most people, and I don’t have a lot of practice lying so you’d probably be able to tell. And then I’d have had to tell you that I like you a lot. But then the same thing would happen now, because I like you even more. Even if you are the embodiment of glitter-coated frustration. I don’t even know if you’re into that sort of thing and you’re a like a hundred times older than me. But I really want to kiss you. Really, really. You look like you’d be a really good kisser, but I don’t have a lot of practice and I want to kiss everybody, so…well, it’s not like anyone’s going to find out so I won’t have to choose…”  
  
He trails off sadly and Sandy, taking pity on him, realizing that he hadn’t meant to tell Sandy all that—and so would probably be alarmed if he offered to demonstrate what kind of a kisser he was and that he wouldn’t mind if Jack did get hard—floated the dream over to him, previously-troublesome wrinkles and curves still intact. It was a dream about Jack being one of the Guardians, after all, and if he wanted it to go the way it was shaped, well, Sandy certainly wasn’t going to stop him.  
  
Especially since he hoped that if Jack could admit what he felt, the Guardians could maybe start becoming again what they once all were to each other.  
  


* * *

  
  
And though the situation is not free of a certain amount of awkwardness when Jack is carefully drawn into confessing, eventually most of Sandy’s hopes are indeed fulfilled.  
  
And there’s a good chance that all of them might be, and sooner rather than later.  
  
Jack doesn’t lose his habit of talking to himself when he’d probably prefer to be silently thinking, and one evening he happens to muse on the past and future of a “horrible, yet disturbingly attractive” being they all know.  
  
It’s a discussion they all need to have, even if Jack is horrified when Sandy replies to him and realizes that this conversation is indeed going to happen, right now, on a giant new bed at the North Pole.

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> #Jack pls#everyone loves Jack
> 
> theunvanquishedzims reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> This is a magical ship I had not considered before.
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: this was so sweet! I love the OT+ universe.
> 
> aboutascoolasfrenchtoast reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> hell yeah HELL yeah HELL YEAH


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